


Something Higher

by truthwatcher



Category: Skyward - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Spin is a treasure, Zeen’s musings, and about Skyward in general, i have a lot of feelings about this, zeen was a good dad okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-08-27 08:33:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16699021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/truthwatcher/pseuds/truthwatcher
Summary: The musings of a coward.





	Something Higher

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of feelings about Skyward, and this sort of... happened. In ten minutes.

Zeen, callsign: Chaser, watches his little girl as she slays dragons and fights battles, waging war on invisible enemies. 

She shrieks a battle cry as she jumps upon her foes, an unsuspecting pile of cushions. 

She’s so young. 

She’s so innocent. 

He wishes he could keep her that way. He wishes he could somehow stop her glorification of war, of violence and destruction. And yet, how can he?

She’ll realise, one day, that honour and nobility are fine ideals to follow, but they don’t take the shape she currently sees them as. 

Glory and renown aren’t worth the horror of seeing your friends shot down before you, staring death in the eye, and questing for meaning in who lives and who dies. 

Chaser looks up. He imagines he can see past the stone ceiling of the cavern, the debris field, and into open space. 

He wonders how his death will come. At the hands of a Krell’s fire? From crashing onto the surface? From a lifebuster bomb?

He shivers at the thought, gaze returning to his little girl, his little warrior. 

He wonders at the ending of his story, of the stories still being written and the stories yet to be told. He wonders what his daughter’s story will be, as she decimates the armies of her fictional foes. 

“Glory shall be mine, evil Krell!” She shrieks, stabbing downwards with an imaginary sword, into the heart of a cushion. 

Glory. Nobility. Honour. Sacrifice. 

Ideals that weigh heavily on him, now that he’s a father. Is it noble to sacrifice oneself, and leave behind his family? Is glory worth the risks he constantly puts himself through?

The answer is immediate: no. 

But then, his had never been a fight for glory. 

In a strange way, his had always been a fight for his family. A fight to make a better world, a world he could raise a child in without living in constant fear. No, it had never been about glory. 

He watches his daughter, his angel, his life. He hopes he can teach her, one day, that this war they wage, this fight she dreams of taking up arms in, isn’t for renown and fame. He wants to teach her so much. But most importantly—

_Set your sights on something higher._

One day. One day, she’ll understand. For now, he lets her have her victory.


End file.
